[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Twenty years ago I was watching a Monday night football game when Howard Cosell interrupted the play-by-play with an announcement that John Lennon, of the Beatles, had been shot and killed outside his New York City apartment.
In a eerily, ironic moment, ABC Sports respectfully cut the sound from the game just as a major play broke on the field, leaving television viewers — numbed by the news — sitting in silence while the fans at the game, unaware of Lennon’s death, cheered wildly.
It wasn’t until his death that I realized how much I idolized Lennon, and I grieved extraordinarily for someone I’d never met or known personally.
As I grieved, a Bible verse floated into my mind and hovered there for the next few days: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
I’d like to tell you that, in a Holy Spirit-inspired moment, I recognized the folly of chasing after fame and fortune. I’d like to tell you that I fell to my knees and forever turned from my prodigal path, but instead, in my arrogance, I continued to wander a long and winding road to the Truth.
The prophet Isaiah pinpointed such poor judgment when he spoke about men who built a fire from part of a tree and then used wood from the same tree to fashion a god. It was a god who could not deliver them, and so, by their own hands, they doomed themselves.
One of my false gods, John Lennon, could not resurrect himself, and his music, as good as it was, could not meet my deepest needs. “All you need is love” is a half-truth unless the love is sustained and maintained by the Lover of our Souls — the God who defines love, who by his very essence is love.
Ironically, today the Beatles have the number one record and the number one book on Amazon.com. Thirty years after collapsing as a band and 20 years after Lennon’s death, the Beatles are still powerful enough to reach the top.
Despite their talent and charisma, despite their fame and fortune, Lennon’s Dec. 8, 1980, death proves that the remaining Fab Three are no more than mere mortals, appointed once to die. No matter what they’ve done, good or bad, no matter what you think about their music, pro or con, they face the same end as you and me.
And they face the same choice — that Christ died for them, and that they’re fully forgiven when, and if, they submit to that Truth. Tragically, because of their fame, they may have a more difficult time embracing the Truth than those of us who’ve lived lives less lofty than cultural icons.
I realized this a few years ago, coincidentally on Lennon’s birthday, when I sat in New York’s Central Park across from the Dakota apartments where he was killed. There’s a memorial for him just inside the park’s entrance, and once there, the Holy Spirit nudged me to pray for the three remaining Beatles. The Spirit also nudged me to pray for their wives, and their children. For that matter, it wasn’t too late to pray for Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, or his first wife, Cynthia, or his two sons: Julian and Sean.
The thing is, just because they’re famous doesn’t mean they don’t need God’s love, and just because, at times, they’ve acted godless, doesn’t mean they can’t eventually come to God on their knees. Christ didn’t come to save the righteous; he came to save the sinners.
And so, on the 20th anniversary of Lennon’s death, I ask you to think of the Beatles as the men they are and to pray for their salvation. You may have read that Paul McCartney’s wife Linda recently died of cancer, or that George Harrison, who is truly a seeker after God — even if he’s heading in the wrong direction — survived a knife attack by a crazy fan, or that Ringo, thanks to A.A., is a recovering drug addict.
Pray for them, that they will come to understand that in the end, it’s not about the love you save being equal to the love you gave, rather it’s about knowing the creator of all love, Jesus Christ. And pray, that after gaining the whole world, they will not end up losing their souls.
–30–
Walker, a former rock and roll disc jockey, has been a Beatles fan since 1963, when his dad brought him a 45 record from England. He is a writer for pastors.com.
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